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Children's lives on hold, in the Syrian Arab Republic

A child plays with a piece of a broken plastic box in the courtyard of a collective shelter in Tartous, Syrian Arab Republic. As the conflict enters its third year, more and more Syrian families have fled the violence in their cities for Tartous.

By Iman Morooka

As Syrian families flood into Tartous governorate to escape the violence in their cities –sheltering among strangers, overcoming loss – children’s lives are on hold, and there is no end in sight.

Siham is 20 years old. She comes from Aleppo. She is telling me the story of her family’s exodus to the coastal city of Tartous. I met the family when I visited one of the collective shelters for displaced families in this quieter part of the conflict-torn country.

“We gave her water and tried to make her speak, but she just couldn’t,” she continues. “She was too much in a shock.”

Sheltered in Tartous

There are about 200,000 persons in need of humanitarian assistance in Tartous governorate, but the actual number is expected to have increased recently. People have come from other parts of the country including Homs, Aleppo, Raqqa, Deir ez-Zor, Idleb and Deraa. New arrivals continue to flow into Tartous on a daily basis.

Siham’s story wasn’t the first I had heard of someone who had temporarily lost the ability to speak because of extreme shock caused by experiencing or witnessing violence. Several families I have met have told me that one of their family members – or they, themselves – have suffered this trauma.

“Thank God she is fine now,” says Siham with a smile. The family currently live in one of the rooms at a communal building in Tartous. They are safe now, but their move from Aleppo was not without risk. “While we were moving in a car away from home, fighting broke out. We were so afraid we started crying.”

Siham does not complain about the fact that she has to share space with other families. There are 37 families living in the shelter, all of whom have escaped the violence in Aleppo governorate. “We like it here a lot because it’s safe, and I wish to stay here until peace has returned,” says Siham. “Now, my younger sister is doing much better, and can speak again.”

Children displaced by the conflict who have taken refuge at one of the collective shelters in Tartous. Some 200,000 people are in need of humanitarian assistance in the governorate. According to one aid worker, if aid cannot keep pace with growing needs, the situation in Tartous will deteriorate.

“I want to go to school”

Twelve-year-old Ali tells me that what he wants the most in life is “to go home, and just live with my family again like before”. Ali’s family lives in the same communal shelter as Siham’s, where many families share common space. His home in Aleppo was destroyed when a shell hit the apartment building.

“We had a beautiful and comfortable home, with nice furniture,” says Ali’s mother. The family lost everything they owned in the attack. Ali adds, “I don’t have any toys or games that I can play with any more. I lost all of them when the house was destroyed. We were in the house when the mortar hit. It was so scary. The walls came down, and everything was destroyed, but God saved us.”

The sandals Ali has on his feet are the only footwear he owns now.

Ali had to drop out of Grade 5 when the family was displaced. He has three siblings, with another on the way. To help support his family, Ali sells spice on a street in Tartous during the day. “I want a job to help my family. But more than that, I want to go to school.”

Ali’s mother says that her children don’t attend classes because the nearby school is full. “I don’t want my children to go to a school far from where we are,” she explains. “My daughter had to leave school after second grade. She was so good at her studies – I feel sad that she had to drop out.”

Like many other displaced children I met in Tartous, Ali and his siblings are being home-schooled. Too many children have been deprived of their right to education because of displacement caused by violence and prolonged conflict.

It is only going to get worse

“You see children coming with nothing,” says one of the volunteers with a partner organization. “They are barefoot on the street and in the shelters.” He adds that the situation of both the displaced families and the host communities in Tartous is only going to get more desperate, if aid doesn’t keep up with the needs.

“Because there is no fighting here,” he explains, “Tartous is not considered a priority in terms of humanitarian assistance. But people need to understand that this problem is only going to get worse. More families are arriving, and they won’t be able to go back to their homes anytime soon. This is not only because of the destruction, but because of the deepening divisions in society and increasing intolerance towards others with different affiliations and views.”

They may be luckier than others, in that they have managed to escape to safety amid raging conflict. But, too many families are having to endure life in makeshift shelters while trying to overcome the loss of loved ones and what they have spent their lifetime building.

Too many children are missing out on education. Children and their families have had to put their lives on hold, waiting patiently for an end to a conflict that has now entered its third year.